My question was about the fact that because I've eliminated certain things from my diet, I was finding it hard getting enough calories (even though I already eat all of the foods kindly suggested by you all). I still take in sugar via fruit and naturally occurring sugar from the lactose in plain natural yoghurt - just not through refined sugar, sugar substitutes or natural sugars like honey. I had the dilemma of how to balance achieving all of my food tracker targets with an acceptable fruit intake (as per an acceptable amount of daily servings recommended by the Australian Dietary Guidelines and each fruit's natural sugar content).

In the past few days, I've managed to meet my food tracker targets because I've got better at juggling everything around on the meal planner. I'm still sticking to 2 servings of fruit a day (only one banana though), as per the Australian Dietary Guidelines, as I know from before that too much fruit can affect my stomach badly. As it is already adjusting to my new diet, I don't want to put it under any additional stress.

I may just stick with this approach for the future when it comes to fruit, depending on how my stomach feels, as I'm having no stomach problems at the moment on 2 servings of fruit a day.

This is a problem I face as a low carb dieter. When you remove all the " bad " carbs, what is left has very little carbs. Over time though, you actually increase the variety of vegetables, and fruit, as well as nuts, and seeds.

We get sugar naturally from fruit and vegetables, so cutting sugar isn't the issue, but where we get it from. So cookies should be severely limited obviously, but don't throw the bananas out with the cookies. If you want yogurt, buy it plain ( less sugar ), and add some fresh berries. Have beans, starchy vegetables etc.

We get most of our carbs in the low fat diet from grains, which are very high carb, and you will struggle to get to your minimum if you limit these. You may need to eat 10 + servings of veggies, several serving of higher carb fruit, and beans to get close, but if your goal is just reduced sugar, then these foods are fine. With a little bit of exploration, you will find that you eat about 10-20 % of the food we have available, and may find many more options to help you along your way while doing this research.

When you eliminate a bunch of sugary carbs, you need to add that variety on the other end. You have eliminated a bunch of carby, sugary foods. Now go find out what you CAN have, as far as carbs are concerned. The list will surprise you.

"We can't solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them "

In terms of trying to find carbohydrate foods that lack added sugar or fat -- there are tons of whole foods that do that, including starchy vegetables, beans, lentils and whole grains (think the kind of bulk grains you find in health-food store bins, in addition to the obvious sources such as brown rice and rolled oats). When I want processed foods for convenience I generally just go for brands that have very little added sugar -- a serving of bread for 1g and a serving of salad dressing for another 1g are nothing I personally am going to bother thinking about.

On the other hand if it's a spaghetti sauce or a fruit yogurt with 25g of sugar per serving, I will likely choose something else.

Fruit servings for adults is listed as 2, with more being suggested for those who are taller or burn more calories, more active, etc. As you described yourself; I agree that 2 servings of fruit daily is a good goal.

I would not worry about the "type" of fruit you select. In fact, using a variety of different fruits will give you a greater exposure to different nutrients, antioxidants, phytochemicals.

Some fruits contain more water and therefore the portion size is larger. Some fruits do contain slightly more sugar; but it doesn't mean they should be avoided or limited. When you use the portion sizes as listed in the chart it accounts for these "slight" variations. As indicated in the guide---enjoy a variety of fruits!

Thanks very much for replying to my post. I appreciate the swiftness of your reply and your assistance with my query.

Your food recommendations are helpful. I'm eating nearly all of these already actually. I think it may be that I just have to get used to juggling my foods around to match the SP Tracker!

In terms of the Dietary Guidelines I referred to, these were not from any American website or governmental organisation as you had mentioned. They actually come from the Australian Government's Eat For Health website (which I had also meant to link to - see the links below) and which the Shape website indirectly referred to by referencing the Australia Government's Dietary Guidelines which is connected to the Eat For Health website. In other words, I was referring to official advice from the Australian Government versus advice sourced from a random website.

They quote 1 serve as being equal to a medium sized banana. They also recommend a daily intake of 2 serves of fruit for an average adult up to 70 years old (excluding pregnant or lactating women), with approximately 0 to 2.5 additional serves from the five food groups (including fruit) or as discretionary choices for taller or more active men and women.

As I'm not that tall and am starting off exercising, I felt that 2 portions of fruit is what I should follow (and if I'm having a banana within this allowance, then only 1 medium sized banana), as per these official guidelines.

But this also includes me taking into account the sugar content of the fruit I'm eating. For example: I was thinking that it would be better for me to have banana and blackberries as my 2 daily servings versus banana and pineapples because of the sugar content in both. I could have pineapples and raspberries tomorrow instead, however.

I hope this makes my original thinking more clear to you. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

I think part of your problem may be that you are using information from sources that are not accurate. Nutritionally speaking, they are wrong.

The Shape article makes it sound like the American Heart Association gave a "sugar" recommendation that included added sugar and the sugar that is found in fruit. This is "not" the case at all. The Sugar guideline is a gram amount (about 6-7 teaspoons) related only to added sugar as is found in pop, cookies, candy, pastries, etc.

As part of getting healthy, I've cut out refined sugars etc (apart from fruit and those found from the lactose in full fat natural yoghurt). The problem is that even though I've eating very healthily and meeting the majority of my SP nutritional needs, I'm finding it hard to make up the requirements for carbs (and sometimes for fats as well).

I think this may be because ordinarily if I was trying to eat healthily, I would've some things with refined sugars in them (like wholewheat bread) and probably a bit of chocolate as well each day. I would've at least 2 bananas daily as well, which are high in calories.

Now I'm also trying to balance my fruits so as only to have 2 portions a day (including no more than one banana daily) - in line with Australia's Dietary Guidelines - while balancing the sugar content of bananas versus other fruits (see below).

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